Yogurt Plant Progress & EPA Dust Issue

Yogurt Plant Progress & EPA Dust Issue plus Food Forethought. I’m Greg Martin with today’s Northwest Report.

Senate action on a just-passed House moratorium on tighter EPA dust rules is probably a long shot but according the Rick Krause with Farm Bureau one that Farm Bureau along with Nebraska Senator Mike Johanns and Iowa’s Chuck Grassley are pushing.

KRAUSE: The issue really becomes whether Democratic leadership will allow that bill to move forward or if there is some vehicle we might be able to find that we can attach it to. Typically there is a little bit more rural support in the House than there is in the Senate. The fact that there were 33 Democrats that supported this bill, and many of them from rural areas we think can be very helpful with us in the Senate and we plan to use a lot of those Democrats that voted for thins bill to try to convince their colleagues to move this bill in the Senate.

Twin Falls, Idaho is the home of the new Chobani Yogurt plant. The New York-based Chobani announced last month plans to build a Greek yogurt production plant in southeast Twin Falls. Officials estimate the plant will employ more than 400 people and inject millions of dollars in the regional economy. Preliminary groundwork is being done on the site in preparation for the official groundbreaking ceremony set for December 19th.

Now with today’s Food Forethought, here’s Lacy Gray.

The futures industry is supposed to help farmers and ranchers reduce the risks of volatile prices by locking in prices through the futures market; allowing them to plan ahead, knowing what their costs will be. This has been a done by farmers and ranchers for a good century. Now with the bankruptcy of the commodities trading firm MF Global farmers, ranchers, and rural ag businesses across the United States are left in a state of shock wondering if they will ever be able to trust the futures trading system again; not only because of the collapse of MF Global, but because there is an estimated $1.2 billion that may be missing from customer accounts. In what seems to be becoming a common occurrence amongst trading firms, it appears that MF Global, as its financial condition deteriorated, milked client funds; funds that were supposed to be kept strictly separate in safe segregated accounts. As Scott Cordes, president of an MF Global competitor stated, “Preserving confidence in the system is essential, because farmers who don’t trust traditional risk management tools might end up taking on even greater risks.” The question now is, who can farmers trust?

Thanks Lacy. That’s today’s Northwest Report. I’m Greg Martin on the Ag Information Network.